


The Wondersmith and His Sons

by feverbeats



Category: Thor (2011), Thor (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-26
Updated: 2012-01-26
Packaged: 2017-10-30 03:43:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/327369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feverbeats/pseuds/feverbeats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Asgard, there were four brothers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Wondersmith and His Sons

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bluestalking](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluestalking/gifts).



> This is, as usual, not quite in line with any canon, but it borrows from myths, comics, and movie. Title from an Astronautalis song I've been looking to use for Thor fic for a long time.

Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Asgard, there were four brothers. The eldest was as bright as the sun and the youngest was as fair as the moon, but the middle brothers did not shine. One was cold as ice and the other was bloody as the jaws of a great beast.

Now, these brothers were princes, and their father, Odin, was king. One day he called the eldest brother, Thor, before him.

"My son," he said, "one day you will be king."

Thor laughed and raised his fist and went out to tell all the realm what his father had said. His brothers were unhappy, but not surprised, as he was the eldest.

The next week, Odin called his second son, Loki, before him.

"My son," he said, "one day you will be king."

Loki frowned and bowed his head, and when he went out, he told no one but his brothers. They were perplexed, but Thor decided it was a test to see which of them was worthy.

"Time will tell," said Loki, and the air froze.

Odin waited until his third son, Tyr, was off battling Odin's enemies, before he called Balder, youngest and fairest, to his throne.

"My son," Odim told him, "I know you've heard what I told your brothers. I meant it, just as I mean this. One day you will be king."

"But how can that be?" Balder cried. "We cannot all rule Asgard!"

"Time will tell," his father said.

When Balder told his brothers, Thor declared it proof of their father's challenge to them, but Loki was silent.

When Tyr returned, hands red with blood, from their father's campaign, Balder told him haltingly of what had happened.

"He may yet tell you the same," Balder said.

"He will not," said Thor. "He would already have done so.

Loki agreed softly.

Tyr threw his head back and laughed at his brothers. "Good. Father has made me no promises, so he will break none."

And so the years passed. Thor grew brighter, Balder fairer, and Loki colder. Tyr's hands remained bloody and still Odin made him no promises.

"Tyr," Thor often promised him, "when I am king, you will be my general and lead every conquest."

But always Tyr answered, "Nay, brother, I would sooner give up my sword arm than serve you."

Balder came to Try and said, "Tyr, if I am king, will you be my champion and defend me against all threats?" And he laughed and kissed Tyr.

Tyr dropped to one knee before his youngest brother and said, "My lord, if you become king, I would be honored to serve you." His words were true, but it did not matter. He knew Balder would not become king.

Loki only asked with ice in his eyes, "Tyr, do you think father meant what he said?"

And Tyr said, "Time will tell."

Time told them nothing. Time only left Thor so bright as to be blinding and Balder too fair for his flaws to be seen. Time left Loki frozen. Tyr himself was not left untouched by time, as a monstrous wolf tore one of his bloody hands from his arm in exchange for allowing itself to be bound. His brothers thanked him for his valorous deed, except for Loki, who wept for the wolf.

"No one wants a one-handed king," he snarled at Tyr.

Tyr kept quiet and fashioned himself weapons he could still use, while counting himself lucky to have escaped with only the loss of a hand. 

When Balder was just barely of age, Odin had him married to Karnilla, queen of Nornheim.

"So father's words do not yet prove false," Loki whispered to his brothers as Balder departed. Only Tyr heard him.

Tyr was out on campaign again when Thor was to be crowned. He had no desire to be present, not for Thor's shining triumph or Loki's chilly rage.

Afterwards, he was glad of it. He heard only of a coronation cut off by an attack, Thor's assault on Jotunheim, and his banishment to Midgard at the hands of their father. By the time Tyr returned home, his father had fallen ill and Loki was on the throne.

"And so our father's words are false after all," Loki laughed, his eyes glittering with icy madness. "Thor was never king."

"A king who sits on a stolen throne is no king either, my lord," said Tyr, who had never sworn to serve Loki.

"I could have you chained with my wolf," Loki said coldly, and Tyr subsided. But he listened as Loki pleaded with their mother to explain their father's plan to put him on the throne of Jotunheim, whence he had been stolen as a child.

_Our father did not intend to break his promises, then,_ Tyr thought. He thought little else, as Loki had always been cold as the natives of that realm.

Tyr allowed matters to take their course until his eldest brother returned to put things right. He and Loki did battle until neither shone and neither froze, but both burned.

When they were finished, Loki took root in Midgard, and it was not long before Thor followed, his brilliance dimmed and humbled. (Loki, however, did not melt or soften.)

Tyr went to their father, who reigned as king once more, and said, "Are you proud, father, of what you have wrought?"

His father said, "I intended to keep my promise, until both of them fled to Midgard."

"So be it," said Tyr. "Asgard for Thor, Jotunheim for Loki, Nornheim for Balder. And what was to be left for me?" He had never asked, but with Balder married off and Thor and Loki in an exile of their own making, his father had no heir.

"You were to be my hand," Odin said, "to go into the world and deal my blows for me."

Tyr laughed then. "But now I have no hand, and all your plans are undone. Balder has no real power over his warrior queen. Thor will not return, much as you may wish it. Loki is beyond you to help or hurt. What will you do?"

Odin considered long, and then he said, "I shall go on. I shall rule on the throne of Asgard, and you will be my hand still. You have one left, do you not?"

Thor bowed his head and gritted his teeth and went out into the world once more to do his father's bidding.

He waited, though, for the time when Balder would return from Nornheim, no longer fair, perhaps, but wise. He waited for Thor and Loki to wear each other's edges down and return as well.

He waited, but in vain. His right hand was bloody still, and his left he replaced with a weapon. He fought his father's wars until he was sick with it, and weary, and until all he wished for was for one of his brothers to return and unseat their father from his throne. He cursed himself for his rash words to Thor, his dismissal of Balder's chances. The mace where his hand had been reminded him not to forgive Loki so quickly, but as time wore on, he came to believe there were worse things than serving Loki.

In all of this, Tyr knew one thing: He was not bright or fair or cold, but he was already ready to do battle, and he would not wait forever.


End file.
